You have to take good news where you find it, and the uplift from Michigan and Arizona is that simple greed has prevailed over religious zealotry as Mitt Romney wins with the help of older, better-educated and high-income voters who think the economy and the budget deficit are the major issues this year.
Looking ahead to Super Tuesday, this bodes better for the electorate as the Ayatollah Santorum surge of theocratic fervor starts to fade back into the pack of such previous would-be Romney stoppers as Michele Bachmann’s Tea Party nullification, Rick Perry’s unhorsed Washington hatred, Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 economic specials and Gingrich’s three-ring marital history—-a sad circus of clowns to express the will of a major political party united only by hatred of a sitting President.
The most recent GOP candidate fails to see the bitter comedy. “This,” says John McCain, “is like watching a Greek tragedy. It’s the negative campaigning and the increasingly personal attacks…it should have stopped long ago. Any utility from the debates has been exhausted, and now it’s just exchanging cheap shots and personal shots followed by super PAC attacks.”
McCain, notes Maureen Dowd, “should know from Greek tragedy…When a man who was accused of having an illegitimate black child in the 2000 South Carolina primary thinks this is the worst ever, the GOP is really in trouble.”
Meanwhile, the Dow closes above 13,000, unemployment is inching down and Barack Obama’s favorability numbers are rising.
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